Annotated Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (Old Testament Guides)

Annotated Key to

LAMBDIN'S INTRODUCTION TO

BIBLICAL HEBREW H.G.M. Williamson

T & T CLARK BIBLICAL LANGUAGES

T.O. Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, to which the Key relates, is published by Darton, Longman & Todd, 1 Spencer Court, London SW18 4JJ

First published by JSOT Press 1987 Reprinted 1992,1995,1996,1998,2000,2002,2004 Copyright O 1987,1992,1995,1996,1998,2000,2002 Sheffield Academic Press A Continuum imprint Published by Sheffield Academic Press Ltd The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX 15 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10010 www.SheffieldAcademicPress.com www.continuumbooks.com www.tandtclark.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Williamson, H.G.M. Annotated key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (JSOT Manuals, ISSN 0262-1754; 3) 1. Hebrew Language—Grammar I. Title II. Lambdin, Thomas Oden. Introduction to Biblical Hebrew 492.4'82421

ISBN 1-85075-045-9

PJ4564

CONTENTS

Preface Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7 Lesson 8 Lesson 9 Lesson 10 Lesson 11 Lesson 12 Lesson 13 Lesson 14 Lesson 15 Lesson 16 Lesson 17 Lesson 18 Lesson 19 Lesson 20 Lesson 21 Lesson 22 Lesson 23 Lesson 24 Lesson 25 Lesson 26

5 7 9 13 16 20 24 27 30 32 36 41 45 47 50 53 56 61 64 67 71 76 79 81 85 90 94

Lesson 27 Lesson 28 Lesson 29 Lesson 30 Lesson 31 Lesson 32

Lesson 33

Lesson 34 Lesson 35 Lesson 36 Lesson 37 Lesson 38 Lesson 39 Lesson 40 Lesson 41 Lesson 42 Lesson 43 Lesson 44 Lesson 45 Lesson 46 Lesson 47 Lesson 48 Lesson 49 Lesson 50 Lesson 51 Lesson 52 Lesson 53 Lesson 54

97 102 107 111 115 120 125 130 135 138 142 146 150 154 156 160 164 167 170 173 176 181 184 188 192 197 201 205

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Preface The general advantages and drawbacks of a key to a teaching grammar are well known, and need not be rehearsed again here. A particular justification in the present instance is that T. O. Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew has been found helpful by many students working on their own without a teacher. They, at least, are unlikely to abuse the answers to the exercises, and I hope that the notes will be helpful to them, for such people deserve every encouragement in their efforts. I have tried to include comments on matters which I have found cause difficulty to students working through Lambdin, and not simply to repeat what may already be learnt by careful reading of his text. This explains why some items receive more emphasis than others. While on the whole I regard Lambdin as the best teaching grammar currently available, particularly in its handling of the verb and of syntax, I have some reservations about its abolition of the traditional division of nouns into declensions. In the early chapters, therefore, I have made a special effort to supplement Lambdin's comments on noun formation; those who experience no problems with Lambdin's explanations can always ignore these passages! With this one exception, my aim throughout has been to follow Lambdin's practices as closely as possible, even where these might not coincide with my own preference (e.g. the use of the expression wavv-conversive and the scheme of transliteration in the first ten Lessons). This has resulted, I am aware, in a certain inconsistency in the handling of the exercises: some are rendered quite literally, others more idiomatically. Always, I have asked myself what someone who has reached this stage of learning from this particular book can be expected to know, and to work within the limitations of that framework. For similar reasons I have attempted to put clarity before technical exactitude when writing the notes to the exercises. If I could offer one word of advice to those embarking on this course, it would be to encourage them in each Lesson to study the 'Hebrew into English' exercises first. These give particular practice in the points raised in the Lesson, and will, it is to be hoped, enable these to be mastered correctly before going on to composition in Hebrew itself. My notes will be found to follow this same approach. This Key was originally prepared several years ago at the suggestion of a publisher who then found after many attempts that its production was going to prove too costly for its intended market. I am not the first author with an unexpectedly spare manuscript on his hands to have turned to my good friends at the JSOT Press and to have found that they have a convenient series which was prepared to adopt the orphan. I am most grateful to the editors for their willingness to accept this book for publication. Not unreasonably in the circumstances, however, they asked me to produce 'camera-ready copy', and this has necessitated (not before time!) my learning how to use a word-processor that could handle pointed Hebrew and transliteration. For much help in this regard I must pay tribute to the patience of my instructor, Mr Mike Thompson, a doctoral student here in Cambridge. Readers who find the following pages pleasing to the eye largely have him to thank. Others to whom I owe a debt of gratitude include Mrs J. Hackett, who several years ago typed the original draft of what must have seemed a more than usually dreary manuscript and did so with her customary cheerfulness and skill. Several friends have

6

Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew

looked over parts or the whole of the text at various stages and made helpful suggestions for its improvement Dr Iain Provan and Dr Michael Weitzman both deserve special mention in this regard Sadly, it is almost inevitable that some errors will remain. While I naturally accept the full responsibility for these, I must at the same time seek the forgiveness and understanding of fellow teachers. At least any errors will serve the useful purpose of trapping the unwary student who uses the Key mechanically as a way of saving work! More seriously, teachers will, I am sure, agree that if a few more are encouraged to learn Biblical Hebrew, the whole exercise will have proved worthwhile. H.G.M.Williamson Cambridge June 1987

7

Lesson 1

(a) This exercise is based on 'Sounds and Spelling' 2, p. xviii. Remember that in Hebrew every syllable must begin with a single consonant (which includes tf/ep ). $*ma-'t-rt

1

mik-kfr-ks-M

way-dab-te-Tti1

ds-tia-raw

biq-qa§-fi-ka

S9-1o-§im

ytt-te-n£-Jifl

yaS-nwtffl

bi-rf-i^nl

te-dd^Hte/n

hig-gad-ta-iti

ya-am-dQ

wayy&-mot

ziq-nG-hem

This form is slightly anomalous for reasons which will not be explained until Lesson

40. A beginner could not be faulted for transliterating and dividing the word as wa-ysdab-b*r(L (b)

1.

bayit,

2.

tedeh,

3.

dtrek,

4. 5. 6.

habbayit, bdSadeh, 'al-derek,

ayyeh hanna'ar ?

babbayit,

%?e/ habbAyit.

ba&adeh. 'al-haddfrek. hazzaqen ?

habUyit ?

hann£ 'ar (hazzaqen, habbayit) Sam. hazzaqen wshanna'ar,

habbayit waha&adeh.

8

Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew

Note the difference in no. 2 between the use of the inseparable preposition ? te ('in') with and without the article. Without the article it is joined directly to the following word; with the article the consonants are the same, but the vowels are those of the definite article. The same applies to the inseparable prepositions "p fo Cto') and 9 ks Clike1). With all three prepositions the n h of the definite article should never be written. See §15. For 'is/are1, as in nos. 4 and 5 and the following exercises, see §16.

(c)

1. Where is the boy? The boy is in the house. 2. Where is the old man? The old man is there. 3. Where is the house? The house is near the river. 4. The field is near the river. 5. The boy and the old man are in the field. 6. Where is the old man? The old man is on the road.

(d) Note that Lambdin uses the symbol


S$er t9el habb&ytt. 7. ralmhaSSopaflmmehanvnaiakim.

7

24

Lesson 6 (a) This exercise and the following one are designed to test knowledge of participles in which the presence of a guttural letter affects the vocalization (§35). Verbs of this type (and others like them to be encountered hereafter) have traditionally been called 'weak verbs', although many labour under the mistaken impression that they are 'irregular1. Since many of the commonest verbs come into this category, it is a great advantage of Lambdin's Grammar that he introduces these verbs early on so that students quickly become familiar with the commonest items of Biblical Hebrew vocabulary. Earlier grammars often left them until the end. Another advantage of the present arrangement is that students should learn to appreciate sooner that very often the so-called 'irregularities' of these verbs are nothing other than the direct application of rules which are already familiar. For instance, the form D'pJ^i $b'8q1m should cause no surprise, for we have already learnt that under a guttural letter a Shewa 9 regularly becomes a 'composite Shewa' (or 'reduced vowel1), usually 8; cf. §6 (pp. xx-xxi) and plural forms such as DH?$ 'Sbadlm. Students are thus strongly advised as they go along to work out as far as possible where these changes are conforming to such recognizable principles. This will not only help memorization (since one can predict what the form ought to be) but will also lay the groundwork for much of the work on the verbs which is to follow, where the same principles will recur time and time again.

Lesson 6

1

1.

hazzaqen yope'

2.

ha'IS&h riota'at

3.

haSSope? 5dfe*h

4.

ha'am $5'eg

5.

hashed yo$e'

25

This is the first example in an exercise of the so-called p&tat) furtivum (furtive

patah) or 'glide vowel'; cf. 'Sounds and Spelling' §6, p. xxi, and §10 (4), p. xxvii. When a strong guttural letter, such as n h or J) ' , comes at the end of a word and is preceded by any long vowel except q$me$ , the patah is added as an aid to pronunciation. It is placed under the guttural letter, but is pronounced before it

(b)

(c)

1.

hazzaqenlm yopaf/n

2.

hannaSIm note'dt

3.

haSSopstfm $6ht)lm

4.

ha 'ammlm $o 'Sqlm

5.

ha'Sbadlm yo^alm

1 . The men are planting many trees on the mountain. 2. The young man is sitting under the tree (which is) in the garden. 3. The trees which are in the mountains are bigger than the trees which are near

the river. 4. Many peoples dwell in the land because the land is very good. 5. The people are crying out1 with a loud (literally, 'great') voice because the work is very hard. 6. Who is leaving2 the wicked city? 7 . The words are evil in the eyes of the just king. 8. The woman is going out of the house. 9 . The servants are planting a small vineyard near the field.

26 1

2

Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew

Cf. note 2 to exercise (f) of Lesson 4.

tt$* yofe' is often best translated leaving* in English. However, it is as well to

bear in mind the more literal meaning 'go forth1, as then one is more likely to remember that it must be followed by ]Q min , 'from1, rather than a direct object

(d) 1. hammtlek S